HOLY COW!
Wow, so this week was kinda crazy! But hey, what do you expect? I live in the middle of nowhere! Ha ha ha. I am really loving it here. I think that the people here are absolutely hilarious. So let's go through the week shall we?
Monday- We had a family drop because the dad went psycho on the mom for letting us come and teach her without him there. We felt so terrible when we came back by for the return appointment! She was at the door and she was whispering, "I'm sorry I can't let you in! My husband is here and he doesn't want anything to do with religion!" I actually felt pretty scared at that point. Really I just felt bad for the family. It was a family of 5 and all but the dad had an interest in the gospel. Other than that we had a pretty good day. We shot rocks at bottles with a wrist rocket and took care of our shopping and laundry.
Tuesday- This was my first district meeting as a district leader...well besides the MTC. We talked about how the first two principles of the gospel are found in every chapter of every book in the missionary library. It is just my companion and I and one other companionship. 2 companionships in the whole district. We're kind of like the exiled ones because we live so far out in the sticks. We're too far to meet with any of the other companionships for district meeting. Ha ha ha. Tuesday was a great day for finding. We found 8 new investigators in an hour of tracting. I love it here! We also met with the Griffith family this night. The wife was just recently baptized (first week I was here). Now we are teaching her son who is 11. Crazy kid. Off the walls ALL the time. I love that family though. We always go and play a game with them and then relate it to the gospel.
Wednesday wasn't anything special. Thought that it was funny that our dinner appointment for the evening was the cub scout Blue and Gold banquet. Ha ha ha. I could not remember the cub scout oath to save my life. Something about following Akeala? I thought that we were supposed to follow Christ?
Thursday- We set up for Austin Haney's baptism. We made the program, called all of the people participating, and planned out the rest of the week. This night we ate with the Wright family. Easily one of my favorite families in the Branch. Sister Wright would NOT let me wash or pick up any dishes. I don't understand what it is but for some reason people don't like it when you pick up your own plate after dinner at THEIR home. I don't know. I'm trying to have good manners mom.
Friday- Ate sooooo much food! Brother Melton BBQ'd for us. Good gracious. Gained about 10 pounds in one sitting...then I got up, got some more, and sat down again.
Saturday- We had the baptism of Austin Haney. It was wonderful. He was so excited. Pretty sure that he forgot extra underwear and a towel. Felt bad for the kid. Reminded me of the first time that I went to go and do baptisms for the dead. Totally forgot to change my underwear. Anyways...Austin's grandmother is Sister Gamble, the one that we gave a blessing to just the other week. She was able to attend the baptism of her grandson and I don't believe that there was anything that could have made her more happy.
Sunday- ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY MISSION! So it started out with Austin Haney's confirmation. Went smooth as smooth could be. After that we had 4 of our recent converts (between last week and the week before) stand to be sustained by the Branch as the newest members. That was an amazing feeling. Then as we looked around at the congregation we realized that we had 10 of our investigators at church! They were all sitting with members of the branch just smiling away.
Think this is good so far?! JUST WAIT!
After church we rode out with Brother Thomas to his ranch in the BOONDOCKS! Like we drove for an HOUR to get there. They not only were our dinner appointment for the evening but they had invited the Pate family over. The Pate children are all investigators of ours. So we had an awesome dinner and then tried to teach about baptism. Well the kids were half way asleep because it was fast Sunday and we had just consumed an enormous meal, and the parents didn't seem to be paying much attention either. Well, the discussion kind of faded into another topic by some of the other adults at the table (aka- lost control of the lesson) and it was time for the Pates to head home. After the Pates left we started to pack up our stuff for Brother Thomas to take us home when all of the sudden here comes Sister Thomas on a four wheeler. She says, "Kelly! One of the cows is having a difficult birth, I think we need to help her." Brother Thomas turns to us and says, "I'm sorry Elders, do you have many appointments this evening? I might lose a cow if I don't help." We called and rescheduled the appointment while Brother Thomas and his son saddled up the horses to go rope the cow. They got her into the corral and roped her down and started to work. The cow kept standing up and falling over, standing up and falling over. Brother Thomas yells to his 10 year old grandson, "Go get the calf-puller" I was thinking, "They make those?" The kid came back with this crazy looking contraption, meanwhile Brother Thomas is arm deep (no gloves) in this cow's...business. He takes the chain on the end of this "calf-puller", wraps it around the front hooves of the calf, and starts to crank on the other end of the contraption to pull the calf out. Well, that was supposed to work, but the dumb cow kept standing up and falling over and kicking. Brother Thomas yells to me, "Elder! I need your help!" I'm looking around to see which one of his grandkids is named "Elder" He said, "I need you to pull on the hefer's tail, so you can push her over!" WHAAAT?!? So I run over there...in my suit...and grab this nasty, bloody, slime coated cow tail and start yanking on it as hard as I can. The cow tries to counter act the pull, gets off balance, and then I pushed that cow as hard as I could! Down goes the cow. As soon as it hit the ground Brother Thomas cranked the rest of that calf out like none other. I helped deliver a cow. Not something that I ever thought that I would do on my mission but I did. Now the blessing of this "ox in the myr" story is not bloody hands or dirty shoes, it's when we were driving home. We got a call from Brother Pate who asked, "So who do I talk to to get my family baptized?" The biggest smile creeped across I and my companion's faces. This is the Lord's work.
Sorry I'm out of time. Love y'all!
-Elder McNinch
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